Lightning Network Is Now Synonymous with Bitcoin
Bitcoin's scaling solution is maturing. Lightning Network adoption is about to take the next leap.
This post is sponsored by Cash App.
I am teaching bitcoin in a university setting for the first time this semester. The early weeks have been nothing short of thrilling—as somebody who loves bitcoin and enjoys teaching, I am finding joy in breaking bitcoin down, from the beginning, in an extended form.
Lightning Network as part of bitcoin’s fundamentals
With the gift of time, the students are able to immerse themselves in what is bitcoin, how it came about, and why it has persisted. My duty to them is to present information, history, and empirical data to support a thesis that bitcoin is a world-changing technology and a global force for good. In that process, I must decide which aspects are addressed, and in which order.
The question then becomes, at what point in the course should Lightning Network be introduced? Lightning went live nine years into bitcoin’s existence, so we can rule it out as the opening topic. That honor, instead, went to blockchain mechanics—how bitcoin mining works under the hood, or how blocks are chained together. Next was how to use the blockchain—sending and receiving bitcoin transactions.
At this point, the students presented the logical challenge: while this might be a suitable digital commodity, how do slow block confirmations scale in an on-demand world? The answer is Lightning Network, making it a core component of a proper bitcoin education. Lightning and bitcoin have become synonymous, and my university syllabus echoes that. My course addresses Lightning Network as bitcoin’s scaling solution, and students must send and receive Lightning transactions to feel the difference versus using bitcoin’s blockchain.
A Lightning adoption wave is here
Bitcoin’s architecture trades speed for security. Lightning Network addresses that tradeoff. On the brink of Lightning’s fifth birthday, we now have a global adoption wave taking place. It’s a tremendous boost to the conversation that a service like Cash App is now Lightning Network enabled. Cash App’s integration, combined with its bitcoin-only platform, help to drive the narrative around bitcoin as a global, decentralized, and now-instant currency. The instant component is only possible with Lightning. We are excited to see Cash App developer Block demonstrate leadership in bringing Lightning Network to its users, embracing bitcoin as a fixture, and helping people avoid confusion brought on by an offering of multiple cryptocurrencies.
My personal call to action here is to bring bitcoin and Lightning education together—utilize bitcoin teaching opportunities by introducing Lightning Network bitcoin’s accelerant. I personally use Lightning more frequently than bitcoin’s blockchain, a result of how seamless it is to use, and how many bitcoin users have discovered the same. While bitcoin relies on its network of miners to provide security to the network and to build the blockchain for decades and centuries to come, it now depends on Lightning Network to power instant payments. We must therefore associate bitcoin and Lightning as one entity—bitcoin, modernized. I know I’ll be teaching it that way.
